A red plane flying careless and free in the bright blue sky. Not a single cloud in he sky. Below, a shimmering clean ocean on a beautiful day. Cut to Johnny Depp’s darkened hotel room. The room is a mess and so is Depp. His blood-shot eyes and dishevelled appearance give us some indication of the horrendous hangover he’s experiencing. This is the opening scene of The Rum Diary and it establishes the identity of this film pretty quickly. This movie shows us two very different sides to Puerto Rico in 1960. One side is beautiful and carefree and rich. The other is dirty and struggling a poor. How these two sides coexist shows us a perspective on Western culture that should make us uncomfortable and question how we perceive ourselves and the world.

Our current sermon series at St Luke’s is titled “Conflict and the King”, looking at John 5-8. John 7:1-24 is another instance of Jesus coming into conflict with the Jewish leaders over healing on the Sabbath.

In the years we’ve been together, I’ve been sharing my movie critic skills with my wife, Katherine. Using these skills, she’s been excited by (and sometimes disappointed) by her ability to know what’s going to happen in a movie or TV show before it happens, like a cinematic fortune-teller. One thing she recently pointed out that she’d learnt from me is that “they’re not dead unless you see the body.” If the bad guy gets shot and falls off a cliff and is presumed dead, they’re probably still alive. Unless they find the body and get a full autopsy, chances are the bad guy will pop up and cause some trouble when the hero least expects it. If you live in the movie world, don’t trust anyone that anyone is dead unless you see the body.

Pop Culture Christ

Our world has all kinds of weird and wacky ideas about Jesus. He's in our movies, our TV shows, our books, our music, everywhere. But how do they compare to the Jesus of the Bible? What about other areas of Christianity, such as God, Scripture, or faith? That's the aim of Pop Culture Christ. To look at how Pop Culture views Christianity and how Christianity views Pop Culture.

Pop Culture Christ is the work of Joel A Moroney. For more information about Joel A Moroney, click on the About link in the header.